


Float On

by bannanachan



Category: Gatchaman Crowds
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 12:45:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4920106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bannanachan/pseuds/bannanachan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>O.D. recovers with a little help from his friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Float On

By the time they reached O.D., he barely had a pulse. This was enormously worrisome to everyone involved until Paiman’s head cleared enough for him to babble through a wall of tears that actually, that wasn’t unusual for O.D.

He was still in bad shape, and they took turns holding Utsutu’s hand while she held his for a tense 30 minutes before an ambulance arrived. Utsutsu and Hajime rode along, Hajime cheerily waving to the rest of the group out of the back of the ambulance as the doors closed on her. Jou scooped up the still-sobbing Paiman with one hand and started walking back towards their apartments, followed shortly by Sugane.

Only Rui remained, looking blankly between the stain where his body had laid on the ground and her NOTE. She knew she should be doing something important, doing damage control, moderating posts, helping with the relief effort, meeting with the mayor or the prime minister or something, but she couldn’t move from her spot. How could she let this happen? How could she let someone get so hurt? It wasn’t her fault, and he didn’t really do it just for her, but still…

“Rui.” X piped up, and Rui jumped, juggling her NOTE and her tablet until the latter was stationed in her hands again.

“What is it, X?”

“Are you okay?”

Rui smiled softly, comforted by the reminder that she wasn’t so alone. “I’m fine, X. What’s the status of the CROWDS?”

“All remaining renegade CROWDS in Tachikawa were neutralized half an hour ago. The users weren’t harmed, and police are coordinating efforts to identify and recover the involved citizens at this time. The majority of other users have ceased accessing the app, although a number have kept it open to assist further with relief efforts. The Prime Minister will likely okay the evacuated citizens to return to their homes shortly.”

Rui breathed out a long sigh. At the very least, nothing had gone wrong while she and the Gatchaman were preoccupied. The situation with the CROWDS, her CROWDS – everyone really had come together when they needed to, all her hopes had been fulfilled. People really could change, and they really had. Berg-Katze wasn’t accounted for, not yet, but they’d already proven she was no match for them solo. The district’s medical personnel were too swamped already for her to even consider a repeat performance.

“Perhaps you should get some rest.” X said, and Rui realized that she’d been sitting around, not giving a reply, for almost 30 seconds. “It seems the authorities have the situation under control for now, and you must be exhausted.”

Rui nodded, at least pretending to pay attention. Trouble was, going home was an even worse proposition than staying here – she didn’t think she was quite ready yet, to sit where they’d been sitting, sleep where they’d been sleeping… wearing her skin.

X seemed to pick up on her thoughts, and spoke up again in a voice somehow a little gentler than before. “I can contact Jou to pick you up if you’re too tired to walk.”

Rui looked up and cracked a smile, brushing her skirt off as she took to her feet. “Thanks, X. But that won’t be necessary. There’s still plenty of work to do yet today.” A shimmering CROWDS materialized beside her as she spoke, head lolling around in all directions as she checked GALAX for updates, and there – a wrecked parking garage, less than a mile North. Construction crews already on the scene, and along with them, two or three users. She’d fit right in.

“As you wish, Rui.”

***

It was bright. It was incredibly, incredibly bright, and it seemed so obvious now, that death would be bright. O.D. wondered how humans could possibly have come to associate death with darkness in the first place. Of course it was bright – it was the more, the after, the beginning of something. How lucky, to arrive at a something, instead of a nothing.

Only it seemed, as a few moments passed and absolutely nothing happened, that maybe he was the only one here, so okay, maybe this was a nothing after all, just a bright nothing instead of a dark nothing, and he was wondering if that wasn’t the worse deal, actually, when he heard her voice.

“O.D.!”

He blinked. And then blinked again, in surprise, because he blinked. With his eyelids. He had eyelids. He had a body. That was moving, and breathing, and – living. And the brightness wasn’t coming from the great beyond, so much as from gigantic fluorescent lights, stationed in the ceiling, above him. The ceiling, of the place, of the real tangible place where his real tangible body was lying in a bed. And he knew that voice.

He turned his head – an awfully small movement, to use so much strength – and there was Utsutsu, sitting in a chair right next to him. Dimly, he realized his hand was in hers – and glowing, faintly, the sensation like an electric warmth spreading up his arm. There were tears in her eyes. Right next to Utsutsu, Hajime – and she had Utsutsu’s right hand in hers.

He felt a dozen things at once, in that moment – gratitude mixed in with concern, fear, disbelief, guilt, and pain, no small amount of pain. He wanted to say something, to comfort her, to apologize. He didn’t want her – either her – to do this for him. But he couldn’t find the words, and even if he could – there was something on his face, a mask. A respirator, he thought, and he wasn’t even sure if that could help him.

Hajime smiled at him. “Hi, O.D.! I’m gonna go get the doctor, okay? Utsutsu?”

Utsutsu nodded, tears still falling down her face, and Hajime let go of her hand, half-running out the door in her rush. O.D. looked back at Utsutsu, and she lifted her now-free hand to wipe tears from her face. He felt helpless, useless, that he couldn’t do it for her – that he was causing it. And it hurt worse than his injuries.

O.D. reached hard for any strength left in him, and poured what little he found into squeezing Utsutsu’s hand. As hard as he could. She looked surprised for a second, and then squeezed back, the gesture sending a rush of energy up through his arm and into his whole body.

After a moment’s silence, Hajime reentered the room with the doctor in tow and her phone in her hands, looking down at the screen as she walked. She looked up for a brief moment and waved to O.D. with a smile before returning her attention to the device and leaning against the wall.

O.D. listened, as if from a distance, as the doctor listed off his injuries, pausing once or twice when he was at a loss for how to continue while still sounding competent. He was near enough to human that they sort of knew what to expect, and what to do, but it wasn’t exactly a perfect match. Still, they were trying.

The doctor told him to get some rest and gave a strange look to Utsutsu before exiting the room. Hajime hopped off the wall, walking back over and sitting down in her previous spot.

“Paiman and Sugane and Jou are on their way, but it’s okay if you’re asleep when they come.” She said, her voice a few notches down compared to its usual volume. “I have to go, but Utsutsu’s going to stay here. Right, Utsutsu?”

“I’m gloomy.” Utsutsu said, but she nodded.

Hajime smiled and stood up. “Good! I’m going on a date now, but I’ll be back later. Bye! Get some sleep!”

She went out the door, and before O.D. could even try to guess what she was talking about, he felt a pull of exhaustion and surrendered, once more, to sleep.

***

The next time he opened his eyes, the respirator was gone, as was Utsutsu’s hand. He felt relieved – more for her than for himself. Hajime wasn’t there, either – in fact, there was only one person in the room besides him, sitting in a plastic chair some distance away and bathed in light from the tablet between her hands.

“… Rui?” He said. His voice was hoarse, and it hurt, just a little, to speak.

The girl must have jumped about a foot, nearly dropping the tablet in her haste. “O.D.! You’re awake.” She exclaimed, locking the device and tucking it into a bag at her feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean – I didn’t mean to startle you.”

O.D. decided to set aside the question of who had startled who. Rui stood, picking up her chair to set it closer to his bed. “… How long did I sleep?”

“About fourteen hours, I think. Since you last woke up, but I don’t know exactly. I only got here a few hours ago. But that’s what they told me.”

He didn’t feel much better for having slept for fourteen hours. Although it was a relief not to have the respirator on, to be able to talk at all, even if it was difficult to do so. “Where’s Utsutsu?” He asked.

“Sleeping. Everyone is. Except me.” She said. “I volunteered to stay the night here – in case something happened.”

Not that there was anything Rui could do for him in the middle of the night that a doctor couldn’t. So she was just worried, or doing this on behalf of someone else who was. Probably both. Probably he ought to just go back to sleep, still drained, still in pain, and wait until either death or life claimed him once and for all. But he didn’t; he just lay there, watching her struggle with words that she couldn’t get out.

He was close to falling asleep again when she spoke. “Thank you.”

He turned his head to look at her. “For what?”

“For getting my NOTE back. It was because of my actions, that it got taken, and people got hurt… and you got hurt. So I’m sorry, and thank you.”

O.D. sighed slightly, leaning back on his pillow. “Rui,” he said calmly, “it’s not your fault.”

“I know. But I’m still responsible. That’s different.” She said, and it was.

Another moment passed in silence before she spoke again. “I just wish there was something I could do.”

He smiled and closed his eyes. “There’s not. Really, there’s nothing anyone can do.” Except maybe Utsutsu, he thought, but didn’t say it, didn’t want to encourage her. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me now, as long as everyone is safe. The other Gatchaman – tell them that for me.”

“O.D. –”

But he was asleep again before she could say another word.

She stayed there, listening to the monitors going off around her, listening to O.D.’s life reduced to sound made by machines. She felt so small – so useless. For everything that these people had done for her, to think that she could do nothing for the man who had stolen back her soul… it was hard to accept.

Too hard to accept, actually, to accept it. This attitude, this fatalism was insane – she had the support of an entire country behind her. This was not a time to take death lying down. There was something she could do. There had to be.

She stood up, walking back to where she had dropped her bag and fishing out her tablet – and she had an idea.

***

The next time that O.D. woke up, there was, once more, a hand in his. Utsutsu’s hand. She wasn’t doing anything that he could feel at least, besides holding it, a foreign urgency in her grip. He smiled at her as his vision came into better focus, and teary-eyed, she smiled back.

It was another minute before he registered that she wasn’t alone. The rest of the Gatchaman had gathered in the room, too; Paiman was sitting on Hajime’s shoulder, Hajime was standing by the door, Jou and Sugane were standing close together against the wall. And Rui – Rui was by Hajime, by the door. And behind the door, through the window – he could see them, a huddle of strangers. Maybe twenty – maybe more, all of them trying to peek through the window at once.

“… What’s going on?” He asked.

Hajime looked expectantly at Rui; Rui cleared her throat.

“I, um. I thought about what you said.” Rui said. “About how no one could help. And I decided you were wrong. So I talked to Paiman, and Utsutsu, and – I went on GALAX. To find people that I could trust. And I told them about you – about what you did for everyone, getting my NOTE back. And I asked them if they would be willing to help. These are the people who said yes.”

He opened his mouth to object, but she kept talking.

“Utsutsu says it’s okay – and Paiman does, too. Everyone agreed on it already, while you were sleeping. All we need now is permission from you.”

“Please, O.D.” Utsutsu piped up, and he turned his gaze back to her. “We want to help.”

“It makes us happy!” Hajime declared. “Everyone is shiny when they’re together helping people!”

“Please, senpai,” said Sugane, and Jou nodded, a warm smile on his face.

He looked at Paiman. “You’re okay with this?”

Paiman fidgeted on Hajime’s shoulder. “W-well… these humans have demonstrated exceptional efforts to protect the planet and support us… and you’re an essential member of the team… we can’t afford… can’t afford to…” Tears formed in the panda’s eyes, and suddenly, Paiman started bawling, oversized tears soaking Hajime’s shirt. “Don’t die, O.D.!”

It was hard to argue with that. But then again, he didn’t really want to.

“… Okay.” He said.

Rui looked surprised for a second, then grinned ear to ear. “So you’ll let them…”

“Yes.” He said. “Tell them… tell them thank you for me. I’m going to sleep for now, okay?”

The six of them nodded at once, and Rui moved to open the door, a low murmur coming through the crack as she slipped through. She returned after a few moments with a young woman with bleached hair in hand, and the girl sat down next to his bed, smiling at O.D. as she offered her hand to Utsutsu. “Hi. My name’s Nao.”

O.D. smiled back at her. “Hi, Nao. Thank you for helping me.”

Nao shrugged. “You helped us too, right? It’s totally chill.”

He closed his eyes, and after a second, warmth flowed into him like sunshine.

**Author's Note:**

> Further evidence to the proposition that I can't write pure fluff no matter how hard I try. Oh well.
> 
> The character "Nao" comes from Nao-Nao from The World Ends With You aka TWEWY, my latest of many obsessions.
> 
> Title is from "Float On" by Modest Mouse.
> 
> Thanks to [otomatonom](otomatonom.tumblr.com) and [Blooper-boy](blooper-boy.tumblr.com) for betaing.


End file.
